Electrical connectors are used in a variety of applications for making large numbers of electrical interconnections. A connector typically includes two components: a housing or other body member and a plurality of terminals or electrical contact elements mounted on the housing. A connector may be attached to the end of a multi-conductor cable, and a second connector may be mechanically and electrically interconnected to a printed circuit or wiring board, or both connectors may be attached to cables or both connectors may be interconnected to a pair of boards. Regardless of the application, electrical connectors often are difficult to mate or interconnect when they mount a large number of terminals. In addition, some connector assemblies may be sealed assemblies, with the seal means making it difficult to mate the connectors.
Consequently, a variety of devices have been designed for assisting the mating process. One typical device or mechanism is a cam lever mechanism, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,035,634 to Hasircoglu et al, dated Jul. 30, 1991; 5,135,410 to Kawase et al, dated Aug. 4, 1992; 5,174,785 to Endo et al, dated Dec. 29, 1992; and 5,230,635 to Takenouchi et al, dated Jul. 27, 1993.
All of the above-referenced patents show examples of cam lever mechanisms of the prior art, wherein mating connectors are provided with levers having camming surfaces, the lever being mounted on one of the mating connectors such that a camming surface engages a projection located on the outside of the second mating connector. The projection defines a cam follower and usually projects laterally outwardly from the outside of the connector housing. Since the lever and the housing usually is molded from plastic, the laterally extending projection often is not strong enough to withstand the necessary high mating and unmating forces between the connectors. In addition, many such cam lever mechanisms require two hands or a special tool to operate or are very difficult to operate with a single hand. Still further, with many of the prior art cam lever mechanisms, the cam follower projections are located on the outside of the connector housings or somewhere remote from the central mating axis of the connector assembly. This causes binding between the connectors during mating and unmating, particularly with connector assemblies involving large numbers of terminals. Additionally, prior art cam lever mechanisms are next to impossible to use in sealed connector assemblies because of the larger forces required and a substantially large increase in the envelope size of the connector.
This invention is directed to solving the myriad of problems identified above and also satisfying a need for a simple yet very effective cam lever mechanism in comparison to the prior art.